However, even he could not contain his pride at the recent shipment of kegs from the Beavertown Brewery in London. He went so far as to post a picture on Facebook of all the kegs neatly stacked into a wall of ale. [1] 

The kegs were supplied by the lovely people at Beertique New Zealand. I recently had the pleasure of (finally) meeting them at the launch of Millers Humulus IIPA [2] at 16 TUN in Auckland. [3] Unlike the Malthouse, 16 TUN actively encouraged me behind the bar to pour pints. [4] Of course, they then expected me to serve said pints to paying customers at the launch which was a shame and not at all what I had intended.

Beertique has started importing Beavertown beers and Malthouse will be – I am reliably informed by the man who signs one of my pay checks – the first pub in New Zealand to have Beavertown beers on tap. First, some details on Beavertown which I have “plagiarised” from a blog in November:

“Beavertown Brewery was set up in December 2011 by Logan Plant in the kitchen of Duke’s Brew and Que, in De Beauvoir, Hackney, London. It was initially located in a BBQ restaurant in the suburb of De Beauvoir which has the old Cockney name of Beavertown. They are now brewing in much larger premises in Tottenham Hale.” [5]
 
Colin (or Mr Mallon as he known by acquaintances) probably thought he was setting me a tough assignment this week, writing about three London beers on tap in New Zealand for the first time. However, I am pleased to confirm that not only have I drunk two of them on tap before, I did so in Duke’s, the very place the brewery began.

Yes, some on the internet may belittle my research skills or my love of quoting Brown, Beaumont and Donaldson when I don’t have anything smarter to say, but consider this. Last year I had a single day in London after flying direct from Wellington. Yet I still managed to predict that, five months later, Colin the Handsome yet Softly Spoken Scottish Proprietor would order me to write about Beavertown beers and, even in my sleep deprived state, I sought out, tasted and even wrote live tasting notes for two of them. [6]

The Duke’s pub may be hugely famous in London but that did not impress our taxi driver one bit. Despite the fact the cab had been pre-booked for (literally) months to a specific street address, he refused to move until we gave him the postcode which we had to look up on our phones. His sophisticated GPS system on the dash apparently could not be touched for such trivia. Turns out it is also did not work very well as we went down a dead end lane only to have to do a smooth seven point turn and head back round the block. Oh – and then he drove right past the pub. In his defence, it was a flash looking cab, provided you were not actually trying to go anywhere

Here is what I wrote in my notebook about Duke’s – “a mix of bricks and tiles, wood everywhere, mismatched chairs and tables, exposed beams.” I now want to say it was “traditional minimalist” but I may have just made that up.  However, I felt instantly at home having a pint there and pretending to understand the away goals rule in soccer/football.

Our gracious hosts told us that Duke’s is one of the hottest craft beer bars in London. It was where Beaverton started brewing and they still launch many of their beers there. [7] Here are my uncensored London notes on the two beers now on tap at Malthouse:

Beavertown Gamma Ray APA (5.4%) is an APA with ray guns on the label – of course I would have this first. My notes read “slightly hazy golden, thick and finely bubbled head, lasting caramel mid-bitterness, smooth carbonation but not hugely APA.” Looking back, it’s at the more subtle end of the scale – balanced and tasty.”

Next up was Beavertown Neck Oil Session IPA (4.3%) which is a pale ale with a great name. [8] My notes from the time record “clear golden, pillowed white head like ice cream, sharp grapefruit taste, grapefruit peel, love it.” In a rare turn of events, a session IPA took down an APA, at least in my notebook.

I did not try Beavertown Black Betty (7.4% and 75 IBUs) in the UK though I have a can stored up for a colder day here. The brewers wanted to make a big fat IPA laced with roast, aniseed, and the huge tropical aromas of the Pacific West Coast. The near perfect rating on RateBeer indicates they must have done a rather good job of letting the hops fly in a dark beer.

Finally, I am contractually obliged to remind punters about the on-going Sourfest, a celebration of sour ales. [9] Malthouse is showcasing over 15 local sour beer examples from local breweries large and very small. Here is the provisional line-up for Sourfest 2015:

Moa Ten Year Cherry Sour
Moa Sour Blanc
Moa Mottled Tart Berliner Weisse
Brewaucracy Night Shift
Good George Grapefruit Sour
Good George Oaked Berliner Weisse
Good George Two Year Old Waikato sour (which was kegged the day then brewer Kelly Ryan’s child was born)
8Wired Feijoa sour (last keg in existence)
8Wired Flanders Blond
8Wired Flanders Red [7]
8Wired – two new releases
Panhead Culture Vulture
BlackDog Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weisse
Hallertau Funk
Fork Brewing Purple People Eater
Craftwork 100% Brett Grisette with lactobacillus
Craftwork – a young geuze.

Next time, we drink to the United Arab Emirates, the cricketing nation which is currently ensuring plucky Scotland is second last in the Cricket World Cup, albeit on run rate.

[1] To badly paraphrase Epic Meal Time, “we are building a wall – to keep the haters out.”

[2] Alert readers will be aware that the same beer mysteriously popped up in Malthouse several weeks earlier. I’m sure it is well gone now but I want to stress that I only had three pints of it and, for the first time ever, I actually mean three pints.

[3] As a side note, I was deeply impressed with the place. 16 TUN is definitely a go-to Auckland venue for craft beer and pub food.

[4] Colin gets quite twitchy if I even look like sneaking near the taps. He and his accountant are just lucky that I am not well built for sneaking.

[5] Not to be confused with the soccer/football club called Tottenham Hotspur Nil.

[6] Interesting point – my handwriting gets even messier after a few beers but somehow becomes neater after two days of virtually no sleep.

[7] I then wrote “caramel mid-bitterness” which is an odd description for a pub interior. This indicates I may have been more tired (but not more emotional) than I thought.

[8] Neck oil being British slang for beer. The reasons should be relatively self-evident.

[9] Not to be confused with virtually every article in the last fortnight by English cricket writers.

Cheers

Neil Miller
Beer Writer
Beer and Brewer Magazine
Cuisine Magazine
TheShout Magazine
New Zealand Liquor News Magazine

Links

Beavertown Brewery – http://www.beavertownbrewery.co.uk/blog
Malthouse Facebook – www.facebook.com/pages/Malthouse/7084276173
Malthouse Twitter – www.twitter.com/#!/malthouse
Malthouse Taps on Twitter – www.twitter.com/#!/MalthouseTaps
Neil Miller on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/#!/beerlytweeting